Feature Channels: Biotech

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KINGSTON, RI – April 11, 2022 – Albert Kausch, director of the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory at the University of Rhode Island, is welcoming 11 scientists from across the nation and Argentina to a 10-day National Science Foundation and Department of Energy sponsored workshop.The Cereal Crop Plant Transformation and Genome Editing Training Workshop, to be held at Kausch’s lab in West Kingston this week, will train participants to alter the DNA of sorghum to improve it as a bioenergy crop.

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Yongqin Jiao is a Group Leader in the Biosciences and Biotechnology Division at Lawrence Livermore National Lab. With her Early Career Research Program award, she investigated how the bacterium Caulobacter crescentus survives in high levels of uranium and its potential use for bioremediation.

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When reproductive biologist Alex Travis began investigating how sperm cells swim more than two decades ago, he had no idea the research would lead to a new way to diagnose stroke and other diseases. Now, Travis and his colleague Roy Cohen have co-founded a company, TETDiagnostics, to transform what they learned from sperm into a bio-inspired diagnostic technology.

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Research conducted at the Advanced Photon Source contributed to a groundbreaking new molecular therapy to treat paralysis. These new "dancing molecules" signaled cells to repair damaged spinal cord tissue, curing paralyzed mice.

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Columbia Engineering researchers report that they have developed a “cloaking” system that temporarily hides therapeutic bacteria from immune systems, enabling them to more effectively deliver drugs to tumors and kill cancer cells in mice. By manipulating the microbes’ DNA, they programmed gene circuits that control the bacteria surface, building a molecular “cloak'' that encapsulates the bacteria.

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Argonne researchers have used a separations technique called capacitive deionization for battery recycling and to separate out fuels for sustainable aviation.

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When used as biocatalysts, enzymes accelerate many chemical reactions. At Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), researchers have now embedded enzymes in metal-organic cages (MOFs). For the first time, they then demonstrated that stabilization by these frameworks is sufficient for use of the enzymes in a continuous reactor. Moreover, the enzymes embedded in the MOFs cannot only be used in aqueous, but also in organic solvents. The researchers report in the journal Angewandte Chemie (DOI: 10.1002/anie.202117144).

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Dr. Sudkate Chaiyo from the Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Chulalongkorn University (IBGE-CU) has won the 2021 Young Scientist Award with his simple and innovative biosensors for food quality, agricultural safety, clinical diagnosis, and COVID-19 immunity detection.

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Don't miss these articles in our Staff Picks channel

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In a demonstration of research excellence and entrepreneurial vision, faculty at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have secured two of the five 2022 XSeed Awards, which provide $100,000 in funding for each winning team to advance promising basic science findings that have startup potential. The theme of this year’s competition was neurodegeneration, with proposals offering novel approaches to address key questions about the pathogenesis, progression, diagnosis, or treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.

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NIBIB-funded researchers are developing a robotic pill that, after swallowing, can deliver biologic drugs into the stomach, which could provide an alternative method for self-injection for a wide range of therapies.

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ROCKVILLE, MD – The Biophysical Society is pleased to announce that Anđela Šarić, of the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (IST Austria), was honored as the winner of the Biophysical Journal Paper of the Year Award for 2021. This award recognizes the work of outstanding young investigators in biophysics. The winning paper is titled “Modelling Fibrillogenesis of Collagen-Mimetic Molecules.

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Researchers in the University New Hampshire’s Surface Enhanced Electrochemical Diagnostic Sensors (SEEDS) Lab have received an EPSCoR grant from the National Science Foundation for close to $6 million to lead a team in developing sensors to promote quality control in biomanufacturing—the production of important biomaterials used in medicine, food and even engineered human organs—a field that is becoming an important sector of the economy.

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InSphero AG, the pioneer in 3D cell-based assay and organ-on-chip technology, today announced the strengthening of its Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) with the appointment of Professor Nikolai Naoumov, MD PhD.

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Researchers at the University of Washington have developed a new test for COVID-19 that combines the speed of over-the-counter antigen tests with the accuracy of PCR tests that are processed in medical labs and hospitals.

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Scientists at the University of Bristol have developed new biological parts that are able to shape the flow of cellular processes along DNA.

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Many pharmaceutically relevant marine sponges are found only in trace amounts within the source sponge, and it is neither economically nor ecologically feasible to harvest enough wild sponge biomass to supply the necessary quantities for clinical drug development and manufacture. Researchers have come up with a viable solution – develop sponge cell lines for rapid division and successfully culture them in 3D to scale-up production.

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A patented biomaterial developed by South Dakota State University associate professor Gudiseva Chandrasekher has the potential to repair corneal damage and to create corneal implants.

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UC San Diego researchers report successfully removing the nucleus from a type of ubiquitous cell, then using the genetically engineered cell as a unique cargo-carrier to deliver therapeutics precisely to diseased tissues.

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A new Cornell University-led project will accelerate the application of a proven biotechnology to enhance food and nutritional security in Bangladesh and the Philippines while protecting the health of farmers and the environment.

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Together with colleagues from the Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, biologists from the Research Center of Biotechnology RAS have studied a new L-asparaginase from hyperthermophilic archaea Thermococcus sibiricus. These archaea live at a depth of more than two thousand meters in a high-temperature oil reservoir in Siberia. This biotechnologically important enzyme is used in the food industry, in the development of biosensors, and in medicine due to its antitumor activity. L-asparaginase from T. sibiricus was described for the first time by the authors of this research. This enzyme differs from the previously described analogs by its increased stability and selective toxicity to cancer cells.

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Biofabrication company to advance key tissue applications

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Research led by the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) has for the first time identified the precise genetic operational structure of a key system in Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria, opening the door to possible new antibiotics to treat the infections it causes.

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In Applied Physics Reviews, researchers review scientific advances of electrolyte-gated carbon nanotube field-effect transistor biosensors, which are characterized by superior electronic properties and intrinsic signal amplification and are capable of detecting a wide range of biomolecules with high sensitivity. One of their main components is the biorecognition element, which selectively recognizes the analyte of interest. Biotransduction devices convert the interaction between the biorecognition element and analyte into a measurable signal.

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Hertz Fellows Judy Savitskaya, Katie Bodner Spielberg, and Kelly Moynihan transitioned to biotech venture capital after receiving their PhDs in bioengineering, enabling them to work closely with forward-thinking entrepreneurs and promising new biotechnologies.

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Alloplex Biotherapeutics and Hackensack Meridian Health announce Equity Investment

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Detecting the activity of CRISPR gene editing tools in organisms with the naked eye and an ultraviolet flashlight is now possible using technology developed at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

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In APL Bioengineering, researchers have developed an approach to print skin equivalents, which may play a future role in facilitating the healing of chronic wounds. They used suspended layer additive manufacturing, creating a gel-like material to support the skin equivalent that can then support a second phase of gel injection. During printing, the skin layers are deposited within the support gel. After printing, the team washed away the support material, leaving behind the layered skin equivalent.

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Just as convincing images of cats can be created using artificial intelligence, new proteins can now be made using similar tools.

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Researchers have made significant advances toward the goal of a new microchip able to grow DNA strands that could provide high-density 3D archival data storage at ultra-low cost – and be able to hold that information for hundreds of years.

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A novel medical device that works as an absorbable implant for meniscal reconstruction, invented by researchers at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, received the 2021 Thomas Edison Patent Award in the Biotechnology category. The tissue-engineered implant treats meniscal tears to lessen or even entirely rid the need for a total knee replacement surgery. The implant also recreates the anatomy and fiber geometry of the meniscus.